Name: Ian RichardsonTitle: FounderBusiness: Doberman Technologies LLCLocation: Lansing-Metro, Okemos BasedSmartphone: Droids, iPhone 4, iPhone 5Computer: Windows 7 Pro 64bitOther Gadgets: Servers count? We’re not really a gadget-based firm, but we’ve got about $60K in server/enterprise equipment that runs our firm. A lot of folks suffer because they don’t make the proper investment in hardware up front. It’s better to spend the extra $2000-$5000 up front and be satisfied with performance for five years versus being a bargain shopper and having issues right out of the gate.

What’s the story behind your business?

We’re an IT management firm. Think of us as a small business’s IT department, without the high budgetary costs. We focus on delivering cost-effective solutions to all IT problems faced by a small business in today’s hyper-competitive markets. The base of the service model is to allow a single point of contact for all questions, without having someone experience a charge for each call.

Doberman Technologies was formed in 2005 in Lansing, Michigan and has served the area since that time. We feature a diversified product/service line including the fixed rate, 24/7/365 support plan, toner supply, equipment procurement, network monitoring and support, software sales, domain engineering, and vendor project management. We’re also a Microsoft registered refurbisher and a used equipment recycler.

What apps or services are essential to the operations of your business?

In terms of mobile “apps,” none. We use a variety of full-blown applications day-to-day on our support machines to help diagnose and support our client base. A huge one is our MSP provider, Labtech Software. Integral to all day-to-day operations. Microsoft Exchange is our calendar/scheduling/email back-end application which obviously helps as well. We use QuickBooks for invoicing and quotations, having a properly set up multiuser host on that is very helpful. HP Web Jetadmin is useful for print accounting, and there are a variety of industry specific applications and tools we use depending on the issue.

What apps, services or gadgets do you recommend to other business owners?

On a Managed IT Service Provider scale, you need a good MSP software base to do anything right. In general, I’d say having the ability to have secure, efficient remote access to critical business applications, a robust centrally managed scheduling suite, a highly scalable work order tracking system, and effective IT support to manage it all is critical across any industry. Which is generally what folks hire us for — now taking applications for new clients!

If you have a suggestion for someone we should feature, questions we should be asking, or would like to be featured on Firmology’s How I Power My Business series, email contact@firmology.com with the subject line: How I Power My Business